GEM Chatbot

UX Research, UX Design, Prototyping

A project to increase accessibility among low-literate users when browsing the website of the Municipality of Rotterdam.
CLIENT
Gemeente Rotterdam (Municipality)
PROJECT YEAR
2022
TEAM MEMBERS
Joeri Göbel, Charlize de Rek, Stefan Haaring,
Raoul van der Lans

Project overview

During the second year of my studies I've worked on a project aimed at increasing accessibility for an existing concept and prototype.
This project came from the municipality of Rotterdam, with the goal to further develop their upcoming digital assistant, called “GEM”. Our task was to further develop this current chatbot to be more accessible for citizens with low-literacy skills.

With this project I've had the chance to participate in design sprints, meet our targeted audience and design simple but effective solutions.

GEM - Digital Assistant

Our redesign of GEM has focused on adding features that benefit our target audience. As an example, users with low-literacy skills may prefer different ways of communication with "GEM" than typing, such as using voice messages instead.

We've also laid the groundwork for GEM to be a proper assistant rather than a chat bot. Our iteration of GEM can help users navigate through pages with a broader set of tools, allowing our users to find the information they need much more easily.

View Prototype

Project Timeline

01 - Design Process

During this project I was able to participate in my first Design Sprint. Here I've been able to design at rapid-pace, learn new design methods and approach both problems and solution from creative angles.

Research

02 - Literature Research

I’ve started this project off with literature research, looking into how low-literacy skills affects our users and how they navigate the internet.

I have also taken a look at various resources that delve deeper into existing design methods aimed at providing a good user experience for low-literate users

03 - Field Study

We have also visited a “language café”. Here we had the opportunity to attend a language class specifically for low-literate people.

I also had the chance to conduct interviews with the participants. This experience has helped me identify key challenges that low-literate individuals face when using digital applications and platforms, and helped me create design guidelines to match their needs.

04 - Insights

After concluding our research phase, we quickly worked on defining our insights into various visuals. Here I've worked on creating persona’s, an empathy map, our design guidelines and insight cards.

Design Sprint

05 - Rapidly Designing

During this project we partook in an one week long Design Sprint. The goal behind this design sprint was to run through the design process in rapid-pace, refining our research questions, guidelines, insights and creating additional design work. 

During this Design Sprint I’ve been able to work on wireframes for a potential prototype, create storyboards and solution sketches and test our mockup prototype with our targeted audience as well as present our direction to stakeholders.

Prototyping

06 - Development

I’ve been able to build further upon the work established during the Design Sprint, taking our prototype and expanding upon it. I have worked on the primary interaction with GEM: chatting, and incorporated new features such as voice communication, letting users know GEM is “writing” a response, and buttons to help with navigation.

Due to this being a second year project, there was a lot I learned about Figma - such as how to create scroll frames and animations.

07 - Creative Session

During our testing phase I was able to conduct more tests, as well as run a “co-creation” session with our team members and testers from our targeted audience.

This co-creation session focused on iconography, and how we might best convey certain interactions and functions without text.

08 - Final Design

The final design of GEM can assist users in navigating the website of the municipality of Rotterdam much more smoothly, with features such as simplifying texts, translation, and the ability to read out text, and find as well as link articles. I've also designed a concept poster for this project.

Other projects

Walkabout Platform

A project to increase accessibility among low-literate users when browsing the website of the Municipality of Rotterdam.

An interactive UX Design Portfolio created using Webflow, displaying various design projects made during my studies

Hoogvliet Sustainability
GEM Chatbot
Walkabout Platform